Khabib Nurmagomedov has borrowed Conor McGregor's famous "here to take over" phrase as he mocked his great rival.
McGregor made his declaration in 2014 following his first-round win over Diego Brandao as he and his Irish countrymen completed a clean sweep in Dublin. Reflecting on his win, he said: "He would have to be something special to come over here in my hometown and take this away form me. There is not a man alive who can come on this soil and beat me.
"My teammates went 3-0 tonight... I fed off of that. It was a clean sweep for the Irish. I said it last year, we're not here just to take part, we're here to take over." McGregor went on to win first the featherweight and then the lightweight crowns but has won only one of his last four fights in the cage.
That includes his 2017 defeat by Nurmagomedov who choked out his rival in the fourth round to retain his 155lb title before retiring undefeated two years later. He has since made a seamless switch to coaching and cornered Islam Makhachev to victory over Charles Oliveira last month as his stablemate became lightweight champion.
Nurmagomedov then watched his cousin Usman become lightweight champion in Bellator last weekend and used McGregor's famous phrase when he reflected: "Right now we have the current UFC and Bellator lightweight champions. This is amazing, this is amazing.. I hear a long time ago when one guy was talking about being here to taker over but we are here to take over.
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"You know what is interesting, a coach not a lot of people, I coach people who are around me when i was an active fighter. This is 12 or 15 guys and we have 13 people combined in MMA have won almost 300 fights and this is crazy. Nobody has done this in MMA before, it has never happened before and I am happy because it was my father's hard work."
McGregor quickly took to social media to hit back at Nurmagomedov, writing: "I fight on! Your fathers plan is never complete because you quit and ran, brother. God bless. I’m still here if you want to go again. But your fear of defeat means you’ve already lost. Run from it all you want. We all lose in the end. Death takes us all. I fear nothing but God."
